Winter weekends are made for baking homemade bread, aren’t they? Most often, I just want to whip up one loaf of Italian bread for us to enjoy with a meal or to load up with toppings to enjoy during a good football game or movie. I’ve made a number of versions of Italian bread; bread with sponges, bread with instant rise yeast, bread with herbs, cheese, or both. This is just a simple, basic Italian bread that’s easy to make and even easier to enjoy.

It may seem a little odd that I feel the need to call out that this is a recipe for just one single loaf of Italian bread but through the years I’ve found that most bread recipes make multiple loaves and honestly, most of the time I just want one darn loaf and sometimes trying to halve a bread recipe isn’t always as easy as it sounds.

One of the obvious keys to this recipe is to have yeast on hand and do you know what my secret is for that? I buy a jar of active dry yeast and keep it in my freezer. Yes, you can freeze yeast and yes, it keeps for quite a while in the freezer, long past the expiration date. So if you’re asking if you can you freeze yeast, I’m here to tell you can and you should! You can also take advantage of using just what you need this way and break away from the packets of yeast, although the packets freeze beautifully, too, of course.

One Single Loaf of Italian Bread Recipe

• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 rounded teaspoons sugar
• 1/2 Tablespoon rounded active dry yeast
• 3/4 cup warm water
• 2 – 3 cups bread flour
• 1/2 teaspoon olive oil for coating the bowl for rising
• Baking sheet lined with parchment paper and dusted with cornmeal
• Spray bottle of water (or you can lightly brush with water if preferred)

Directions

• In a medium size bowl, add salt, sugar, yeast, and water and stir well with a fork
• Let rest for 5 minutes until the mixture swells and foams
• Add 2 cups flour – be sure to spoon the flour into the measuring cup and level with a knife; do not shake down the flour once it’s in the measuring cup
• Stir mixture well – it will still be somewhat flakey at this point
• Drop the bread dough out onto a lightly floured surface
• Add about 1/4 cup of flour to the side of your work surface as a reserve and add it in little by little as you form the dough. If you need the rest of the flour, add it in by tablespoons, but don’t use so much that your dough is very dry.
• Work the bread while slowly adding flour from your reserve until you have a ball. You want the dough to still be a little tacky but not sticking in clumps to your hands or work surface
• Knead for about 5 minutes, adding minimal amounts of flour if needed.
• Form the kneaded dough into a ball
• Lightly coat the bottom of a clean bowl with olive oil
• Place the ball of dough in the oiled bowl and then turn the ball over
• Cover the bowl with a towel or plastic wrap and let rest for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, until double in bulk. Don’t let the dough over-rise.
• When the dough has doubled, gently roll it out onto a lightly floured surface
• Gently pull and stretch the dough into a rectangle – I don’t get too worked up about this but it’s usually around 8×12 to 10×14
• Rolling up the long end, roll into a loaf and pinch the final edge into the roll
• Place finished loaf on prepared pan pinched side down, cover again with a towel or plastic wrap, and let rest for about 30-45 minutes until about double in size. Here you want to make sure the dough rises properly so if it takes a little longer for it reach double-size, let it sit until it has.

When the loaf is a few minutes away from being ready to bake, preheat oven to 425º

• Using a sharp knife, cut 4-5 diagonal slits across the top
• Spray lightly with water
• Bake for about 25-30 minutes
• Remove from oven and let rest at least 10 minutes before slicing and serving

Crusty, luscious, super easy Italian bread is now yours…one loaf at a time.

Of course, if you’re hankering for 2 loaves of Italian bread, here’s the not-exactly-double ingredients

• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 heaping Tablespoon sugar
• 1 rounded Tablespoon active dry yeast
• 1 3/4 cups warm water
• 4-5 cups bread flour

Follow kneading, rising, and rolling instructions above, dividing dough in half before rolling the final loaves.

I actually indulged and made 2 loaves this weekend and they disappeared pretty quickly, thanks to my husband enjoying some for breakfast each morning with his favorite jam. My favorite jam to enjoy with this bread is a savory caramelized onion jam that I make with rosemary and vinegar, pictured fully-loaded here:

The thing that you always need to keep in mind when making bread is that that the temperature and humidity in your house can affect the rise time of your dough, so you always want to keep an eye on it. A warmer, more humid environment is going to make your dough rise faster than a cooler, drier environment. The dough to the final loaf I made this weekend doubled in size at its first rise in about 40 minutes thanks to a very warm and humid house.

With just a few basic ingredients you can enjoy homemade Italian bread in no time; it’s really very easy. Of course, the more you make it, the easier it gets so you should probably be making more of it. 🙂  You now have a recipe for a single loaf of Italian bread…you’re welcome!

Enjoy!